


Forever

by Anonymous



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean
Genre: Juvenilia, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-11-09
Updated: 2004-11-09
Packaged: 2017-10-02 02:49:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Is this forever, then?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Forever

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [Lin](http://linaelyn.livejournal.com)'s birthday in 2004.

Is this forever, then?

It's the question the _Black Pearl_ should never have to ask Jack Sparrow, and that she does -- that the _Pearl_ is uncertain of Jack, breaks his heart. She's skittish under his hands, and he doesn't dare ask what he would have asked of her. She still loves him, but it's been ten years. He has to remember that—the _Pearl_is like any other woman, and he has to win her back. He has to, for reasons that aren't entirely clear even to himself, but it's become his new obsession.

Funny, how he never stopped to think about "after" all that time he was chasing Barbossa and the Pearl. He was so focused on finding them, and killing Barbossa, and getting his _Pearl_ back, that he never bothered to go beyond that. It would be as it had been, he and the _Pearl_, and everything would be well.

He'd forgotten that the _Pearl_, even on the best days—and there were some wonderful days, many of them—could be stubborn and tempestuous. He'd forgotten how hard he had to work to win her love and trust in the first place, and how hard it had been to make her believe he loved her as he did. The one thing he had not forgotten—could never forget—was that it was worth it. He rarely thought about "why" during those ten years, except a generalized notion of "freedom" and "the _Black Pearl_." She became a shining beacon, the perfect ship, who could do no wrong, who loved him unconditionally, who gave him everything good about himself, whom he could trust without thinking about it.

That wasn't quite true. She wasn't perfect. Neither was he—he was ten years older, and the years showed. She had suffered under Barbossa, and the first time he saw her, he nearly choked from the twinned emotions that rose in his throat: love, of course, joy, all of that, but rage as well, rage and hatred. Not of her, of course, but of Barbossa. Of what the man had done to her.

Jack had seen women who had been raped, in Singapore, in London, in Marseilles, and while he had pitied them, given them some coins, occasionally taken them to his bed when they begged for a gentle touch, he had never truly hated the men who had been there before him. But what Barbossa had done was inhuman, worse than rape, worse than murder, worse than any sin Jack could think of. It wasn't surprising when the _Pearl_ flinched under his touch, and Jack tamped down his hatred, his rage, in favour of soothing her, gentling her, finding his ladylove again in the worn timbers that hadn't been repaired in a decade, and the barnacles that Barbossa, damn his eyes twice over, had let grow on her hull, and the sails that hadn't been patched even once while Jack was talking about the most beautiful ship in the world.

They're back together now, though, and while things will never be quite the same, Jack prays with all his heart that maybe they can be better. He'll fix the _Pearl_ in every way he can, she'll fix him, in every way she knows how, and while they can't have back those lost years, they can have the next ten years, and the next, and after that, forever.


End file.
